About me - Got good grades throughout childhood, got into stanford as it regarded as best option. Joined Msft last year, realised that I do not like software engineering. I do not like the day to day technical things I do at work. It just feels like labour using code as a medium instead of body. When introspected, realised the only thing I thing i liked( not just good at) is things related to probability , Combinatorics theory. Is there any profession(not academica) that uses these things on a day-day basis. I know the obvious answer is quant and would be really helpful If quants, quant trader would explain what they get to do on a daily basis instead of their project descriptions. I'm stressing on DAY-DAY because SWE also looked fine to me from the outside. So I want to make sure before I make a change. TC: 165k Yoe : <1
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I haven’t done shit today!
Now, why do I have a hard time believing you actually went to Stanford? Your grammar and punctuation definitely look Stanford tier.
Data science / analytics sounds like a good fit unless you absolutely hate coding - some is required but not to the level or rigour of SWE.
Can a quant or quant trader please chime in?
I’m glad you wrote this - I’m very much in the same boat. My friends are traders at JS, 5 Rings and Cifadel. Definitely make a healthy bit more than I do, but they also do work a fair bit harder - market opens early so you have to be in around 8, leave by 6ish optimistically. People in the same tend to all be the same in that they’re math / physics / CS folks from top 5 schools so that can be good or bad for social life, depending on who you are and how much you like competition. I’m thinking of making the pivot myself after my promo here; tech is definitely more relaxing I think.
Depending on the company, quant work will vary a bit. Generally speaking a large part of the work consists in alpha research. You will collect data, analyze the dataset to find signals that are correlated to returns of financial instruments you work on, blend those signals together and eleborate strategies to monetize those signals. Finally you need to put your signal into production. There is more a research component in the signal generation part which involves more math and creativity, and this will be your main day to day work.
Looks interesting, thanks!. - what areas of math would you be using frequently? - If i may ask, could you please go a little deep into the day to day work or some example if possible. I couldn't find the details elsewhere. - What strengths align with success in the role. for example in SWE what I could think of are - Ability to work with others, communication skills, basic cognitive skills to read/write code. Because I feel like, any high school graduate with average IQ could perform well enough here.
This is more quant rather than trader
Look at Healthcare/Bioinformatics/Pharma. You need to do all kinds of analyses for clinical trials, FDA approvals, etc. Then, you may also like operations research in retail, marketing, advertising, etc. There are plenty of options. You may or may not find your calling, but be the best at whatever (crap) you do! Do that and you wouldn't ever look down on yourself.
I am not looking down on myself, but rather on Software engineering jobs.
I didn't mean to imply that you're looking down upon yourself right now. That was a general comment about what comes later in life for many people who don't find their calling and get frustrated with it. I'll take that back. I hope that the other suggestions are helpful.
Actuarial science - This encompasses working for insurance companies and helping them model product pricing such as auto insurance or health insurance. You can make tons of money in that space. Also, research (data) scientists do heavy probabilistic math but not sure about the application.
Thanks! , will check out actuarial science